Case study · Business cards · O'Rourke Property Stewardship
A letterpress card with a single colour, and why that costs more
Dan and Joy O'Rourke steward ranch properties in the Madison Valley and Big Sky. Their card runs one PMS black, both sides, on duplexed cotton — no foil, no second colour, nothing decorative. Which is exactly why every remaining decision had to be right.
The idea
This is the quietest job of the five, and that's its value. It's the one that shows restraint costing more than decoration.
Five rules
- 01One colour, both sides. 1/1 letterpress in PMS Black 7 C — a warm near-black rather than a flat one, so it sits with the cotton instead of against it.
- 02Duplex, not single-ply. Crane Lettra duplex — two sheets bonded, so each side takes a deep clean bite with nothing showing through. Quoted at both 32pt and 48pt so…
- 03Price the thickness honestly. Showed both weights across four quantities with a per-card line underneath — at 48pt, $4.55 each at 100 falling to $1.40 at 1,000. The econ…
- 04Offer the edge, don't assume it. Quoted edge painting as an add-on rather than baking it in — matched charcoal, all four edges, +$165 at 250. Their call, with the cost visi…
- 05Three backs, one arrangement. The centred crest: monogram, line, then the details stacked beneath, so the card reads top to bottom in one movement rather than in two col…
Why 100 cards cost $4.55 each and 1,000 cost $1.40
The economics of letterpress are front-loaded. Plates, make-ready and the press setup are paid before a single good sheet comes off; after that each impression is cheap.
At 48pt the per-card line runs $4.55 at 100 and falls to $1.40 at 1,000. Seeing that laid out is what lets someone choose 500 instead of 100 for the right reason, rather than buying the smallest number on the page.
The same decisions, on letterhead
The card was never the whole job. The masthead had to survive at a different scale, with a rule holding it rather than the edge of a 3.5 × 2 card.
Start from these materials
Same paper, foil and finish, locked in — nothing of O'Rourke Property Stewardship's artwork comes with it.
Designed by Austin Terrill, founder.
